Riefenstahl’s Olympia
July 5, 2012
Can art be beautiful even though it’s wrong or would its wrongness destroy its beauty? This rather abstract question of contemporary aesthetics is made concrete in the example of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s work. Riefenstahl was revolutionary, pioneering in the 1930s a number of cinematographic innovations. She used unusual angles on her subjects; she distorted the …
Literature, Philosophy and Existentialism
June 17, 2012
I have a difficult relationship with novels. I sometimes wonder what’s the point of a fictional story. And should I really spend frivolous time on novels when I haven’t yet even read the complete works of Aristotle, where surely more truth is to be found? Dickens is my favourite author but I always feel a …
Steranko
December 23, 2011
I have an article in Times Higher Education magazine this week on superpowers and comic books. I mention there the work of Jim Steranko. My view is that Steranko played a key role in the evolution of the comic book from throwaway pulp to high art. Comics had a very formulaic look all the way …
The Outlet
December 22, 2011
The impulse for an artistic outlet is a common one. In singing, acting, drawing, poetry, prose and in making artefacts, it seems that we are expressing our creative urges. Such instincts are often crushed by situation, if people have to spend a lifetime of drudgery, for instance. But give someone leisure time and resource and …
Equivalent VIII
December 18, 2011
What is art? Does it have a defining essence? Many have attempted to find it yet so many of the definitions seem flawed. Only a few hundred years ago, for instance, we thought of art as being about the faithful representation of a subject matter, such as in a portrait or landscape. But we are …
Childish Pleasures
November 25, 2011
I’m delighted that Nottingham is hosting a major exhibition of the paintings of L. S. Lowry. My children saw the brochure and found it interesting but amusing. Lowry’s work has a childlike quality, which to an extent explains how it took some time for him to be accepted as a great artist. The arts often …
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